SIR – Regarding carers overnighting at QE2 Hospital.
Although the East and North Herts Trust may not have publicised this, it has now established guidelines and a flow chart procedure for the assessment of a carer’s or relatives’s request to stay overnight with a patient with dementia problems and/or communication and language difficulties.
This follows a compromise solution agreed with the Parliamentary and health service ombudsman arising from a complaint made by me against the QE2, which I have been pursuing since October 2006, when I was refused permission to stay at the bedside of my wife (Alzheimer’s, Brazilian/Portuguese and failing English language).
Although the overworked nurses were sympathetic and supportive, regrettably, while unattended, my wife suffered a traumatic experience which could have been avoided had I been there with her.
Hopefully, the new procedure will help others avoid possible distress and assist, rather than inconvenience, nurses or other patients.
Brian Bennett,
The Ryde,
Hatfield.
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